Saturday’s card at Gulfstream Park will also feature the much-anticipated return of Cal Nation, who registered a spectacular 7 3/4-length victory in his career debut on Feb. 5 for trainer Todd Pletcher. Cal Nation, a WinStar Farm homebred, will stretch from seven furlongs to a mile for his second start and takes on more experienced and stakes-tested rivals such as Bowman’s Causeway and I’m Steppin’ It Up.
Trainer Nick Zito said his top Kentucky Derby prospect Dialed In will have his final major work for the Grade 1 Florida Derby sometime next week. Dialed In won the Grade 3 Holy Bull in his 3-year-old debut before finishing second behind his older stablemate Equestrio when sent nine furlongs for the first time earlier this month.
KENTUCKY DERBY NEWS: Track all the 3-year-olds on the Triple Crown trail
Mike Stidham-trained horses are possible runners in major upcoming graded stakes races, including Willcox Inn, who finished second last Saturday in the Grindstone Stakes, his first race since a third-place finish last fall in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
Willcox Inn closed well through the stretch, unable to catch Great Mills, who coasted through soft splits on an uncontested lead.
“Considering everything, short of him winning, I was very pleased,” Stidham said. “I knew going in the seven and a half [furlongs] was far shorter than his best distance.”
Gran Estreno, an 8-year-old horse who won multiple graded stakes after being claimed for $20,000 in May 2009, broke both sesamoids in his right front ankle joint at the end of a half-mile workout Monday morning at Fair Grounds. The horse has been shipped to the Rood and Riddle equine veterinary clinic near Lexington, Ky., and Dr. Larry Bramlage was scheduled to operate on the injured leg Friday. Gran Estreno can’t possibly race again, but if the surgery is successful he will be sound enough for mild farm life.
A couple weeks ago the Fair Grounds racing office was anticipating a large field, maybe 10 or 11 horses, for the $1 million Louisiana Derby on March 26, but recent defections from the race have pushed the projected number of starters down to barely half that number.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Last month, a 3-year-old filly based in Maryland shipped to Aqueduct to win the Dearly Precious Stakes. On Saturday, another Maryland-based filly is shipping up to New York with designs to take the Grade 3, $100,000 Cicada Stakes.
Dream, a daughter of Malibu Moon who has won her first two starts by open lengths, will make her stakes debut against six fillies in the Cicada, including Coax Liberty, the Dearly Precious winner.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Harmonious, the winner of two Grade 1 turf stakes for 3-year-old fillies last year, will miss Saturday’s $150,000 Santa Ana Stakes at Santa Anita after trainer John Shirreffs said on Wednesday that he was unhappy with her recent training.
“I’m not going to run,” Shirreffs said from his base at Hollywood Park. “I wasn’t pleased with the way she worked last time. She didn’t look like herself.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla.--The opening two legs of Gulfstream Park’s traditional winter sprint handicap series for fillies and mares, the six-furlong Sugar Swirl and 6 1/2-furlong Hurricane Bertie, have featured pretty much the same cast, led by the multiple graded stakes winner Hilda’s Passion. But Saturday’s finale, the seven-furlong, Grade 2 Inside Information, will feature an interesting new look with Hilda’s Passion facing much stronger opposition that includes Beautician and Amen Hallelujah.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The tempo of Oaklawn’s series for 3-year-olds will quicken Saturday, when speedsters The Factor and Sway Away invade from Southern California for the Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel.
But awaiting them is J P’s Gusto, a former California resident who is proven at the pace of racing out west. He defeated Sway Away by a half-length in the Grade 2 Best Pal last summer, then, one start later, was a front-running winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity.
